iDo Care
by swimfin77
Summary: Sam overhears something she wasn't supposed to...


Hiya everyone! So I just re-watched iReunite with Missy, and after I was done squealing from the Seddiness, I kept thinking 'hmm…what would happen if Sam happened to overhear Carly and Freddie talking?' And so, this lovely little oneshot was born! Hope you enjoy it, and know there's more where this came from!

OH! And P.S. – I just read iPonder, by LuDiamonds, which is basically the same idea. Hope you're ok with me kinda piggybacking on your story, it won't be the same, I promise!

Anyway…. I do not own iCarly. Whoa, really? *o*

XXXXX

There are three things in this world I can't do too well. Actually, that's a lie. I'm not good at a lot of stuff, but there's three main things. Firstly, I'm not all that good at keeping my mouth shut, which tends to get me into trouble sometimes. Secondly, being nice isn't really my thing. What? People are just really stupid sometimes. Why should I have to be nice to _everyone_? And lastly, I've got a bit of a problem with eavesdropping. Ok, a big problem. But you find out some interesting things when people don't know you're there…

Anyway, like I said, those are the three things I'm no good at. All of which, interestingly enough, I seem to get worse at whenever Freddie's around. Take that whole 'first kiss' episode for example (though I wouldn't, because just the thought of that night makes me cringe). If I had been just a little nicer to Fredwad, and learned to keep my mouth shut, I could've avoided the whole thing. And the eavesdropping, can't forget that. It was the eavesdropping that gave me the whole mean idea in the first place. Not to say that the whole thing didn't work out pretty nicely for everyone involved, but….wait, forget I said that!

Now I'm not saying that eavesdropping is _bad_, necessarily. Like I said, you can find out some pretty interesting stuff when you do it. All I'm saying is you need to be careful who you're listening to, and what they're talking about. Otherwise you get stuck with all these feelings you don't know what to do with, and you get all confused, and – hang on, I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably explain what led me to this little revelation…

XXX

I remember it like it was yesterday… Nah, I'm kidding, it was yesterday. It was the day after – ugh, I don't even like saying her name – _Missy_ left for her cruise. All I could think about was how much it sucked that she, of all people, got to spend six months sailing around the world. It should've gone to someone who deserved it…or even Freddie. But I guess there was nothing I could do about it, and at least she was out of our lives. Speaking of Freddison…

I spotted him down the hallway, studying on a bench with Carly. I grinned, wondering if they had started on Australia, because I really needed to steal Freddie's notes, and started towards them. When I was just around the corner from them, I saw Wendy come up, smiling at Freddie. Which is weird, because Wendy's our friend, so she knows how much of nub Freddie is, but still, she was looking at him with …admiration, maybe? I don't know. "Okay Benson, you are too nice." she began, still smiling widely.

My coworkers looked at each other, confused. "Why, what'd he do that was so nice?" Carly asked.

"You know that school at sea thing, right?" Wendy asked, and I noticed the change in Freddie's expression. He suddenly looked nervous and uncomfortable, muttering at Wendy to stop as his eyes darted frantically around the hall, like he was looking for someone. Ignoring him, Carly nodded, and Wendy continued. "Freddie won it."

I froze. What? There was no way Freddork couldn't have won that trip, because Missy was probably halfway to the Bahamas by now. And Freddie had wanted to win so badly; there was no way he'd give it up, especially not to someone like Missy. ….Right?

"No…" Carly began, her forehead scrunching up in confusion. "Missy Robinson won it."

Still ignoring Freddie's – albeit much louder now – protests, Wendy shook her head. "No, Freddie won it. But he went to Principal Franklin and told him to give it to Missy." Turning to a very defeated-looking Freddie, she grinned and reached out to pinch his cheek. "Sweet boy." she murmured before continuing down the hall.

I slumped back against a locker. Wrong, apparently. I had been very wrong. But why would Freddie give up a possibly once-in-a-lifetime trip, and to _Missy_? I mean, I know she was a crazy psycho nut, and she tried to replace me and everything, but that couldn't be the reason Freddie had—

I didn't get the chance to finish that thought though, because just then Carly spun to face Freddie, a small smirk beginning to form on her face. "You gave up that awesome sea trip just to get rid of Missy."

Freddie blinked, and looked down at his feet when he answered. "I was protecting iCarly." he muttered, as if he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was Carly.

"No…" Carly began, the smirk growing wider by the second. She paused for a moment, as if thinking something over, then continued, the smirk now fully pronounced. "You _do_ care about Sam!"

Freddie's eyes never left his feet, and I could've sworn I saw a faint blush making its way up his neck. "Well, she did seem really sad…"

If Carly's smirk was any bigger, I don't think her face would've been able to hold it. "And you said Sam wasn't your friend..."

Sighing, Freddie finally looked up. "Whatever." he scoffed, trying to act like him giving up six months cruising around the world for me was no big deal. Um, wrong-o Freddo.

"Whatever." Carly mocked, poking Freddie's stomach. He laughed, and the two of them headed to class, talking about Missy and boats.

I just sat there, against the locker, for God knows how long. All I could think about was what Freddie had done for me. Well, actually, my first thought was that the first mail Missy got on that ship would be a big box of Persian chocolates, courtesy of moi, but after that, I was focused on Freddie. I just couldn't believe it. Freddie, Fredward Benson, the boy I torment all day every day, had given up the trip of a lifetime for me. _Me_. Sam Puckett, the girl he couldn't be in the same room with for more than two seconds without fighting. Why?, I kept asking myself, why?

XXX

Which pretty much brings us to today. I can't say much else has happened, or at least I haven't made any headway into why Freddie would've done what he did. Then again, I never was very good at figuring that boy out anyway. But now I'm standing in front of the iCarly studio door, and I could really use some help with this, because what am I supposed to do? Do I go over and thank him, or do I act like I haven't heard a thing and everything's fine? Should I maybe—

"Sam, the door's made of glass you know. We can see you." I nearly jumped hearing Carly call to me from inside the studio. _Ok, it's cool, _I thought frantically,_ just act normal, don't make them suspect you heard anything…_ Taking a deep breath, I walked into the studio, promising myself that this was going to be a _normal _iCarly rehearsal.

And it was. Carly and I ran around like idiots in front of the camera, Freddie made sure the tech equipment was working smoothly, we bickered, Carly intervened…normal. But the entire time, I couldn't help feeling horrendously awkward whenever someone mentioned Missy, or yesterday, or boats. During one sketch, Carly announced that Missy wouldn't be joining the show again for a long time, since she was cruising around the world, and I nearly passed out.

Finally, rehearsal ended. "I'll go get some punch." Carly said as she headed for the door. "And….ham?" she asked, looking at me.

"Please." I replied, and she took off down the hall, leaving me and Freddie alone.

I watched him for a while, slouching on my purple beanbag as he looked over some last-minute changes in the calibrator speed or whatever. I saw his jaw begin to clench, and almost felt myself smile. He always hated it when I watched him. After about five minutes, he finally whipped his head up from the laptop and growled "What?"

I wanted to smirk at him, and toss out an off-handed insult, but I looked up at him and the words died in my throat. His deep chocolate eyes were narrowed in annoyance, but I couldn't help but notice how warm and comfortable they looked… What? The nub has nice eyes, ok? It's not like I _like_ them or anything, they're just…nice. "Sam?" I blinked, remembering that he had asked me a question.

"Oh, um…" I stammered, trying to think of something that would sound normal. He nodded his head, waiting for my answer. "Uh, thanks, I guess."

He blinked. "Thanks?"

"Yeah." I swallowed, wondering yet again why I couldn't just keep my big mouth shut. "You know, for the whole Missy thing." He just stood there, looking at me blankly, and I sighed. "I um, kinda overheard you and Carly talking."

"Oh." he said, moving from behind the tech cart to the yellow bean bag next to mine. He looked confused, or maybe it was nervous, I couldn't really tell. "Listen Sam, I'm sorry I didn't believe you about Missy. I mean, sure, there are some times when you get paranoid, but I should've at least listened to you, and—"

I shook my head. "Nah, it's ok. Besides, I think you more than made up for it with the cruise trade-in." He gulped and smiled nervously at me. "Freddie, I don't get it. Why would you give up something like that…for me?"

He sighed, and this time I was sure he was blushing. "Well, you just seemed so sad when I didn't believe you about Missy, and I wanted to make it up to you…" he ran a nervous hand through his hair, his eyes not meeting mine. "And, you know, you're my friend and I care about you and—" he stopped, eyes wide, as if he had just let something slip he really didn't want me to hear.

I don't know what it was that made me do it, but I smiled softly and quietly murmured "I care about you too Freddie."

His head shot up, and he looked at me with shocked eyes. "What?" he asked, face flushed.

"I care about you." I repeated, and I could feel my own face heating up. "I know it might not seem like it with the way I'm always picking on you, and calling you names, and destroying your personal property…" I trailed off, looking down at the floor before continuing. "But you're like my best friend, next to Carly, and I know we fight a lot but I like fighting with you, and you're really nice and fun to be around and sometimes even funny when you're not being a dork…." I didn't know what I was doing; I couldn't make the words stop.

I was about to keep going, babbling on till who knows when, but he suddenly reached out and grabbed my arm. "Sam!" he called, pulling me back from my tirade. "I'm glad." I blinked. Was that all he was going to say? "I'm glad, because I care about you too, even though your favorite hobby is ruining my day. I like the way we always fight, and you can be nice yourself, when you feel like it."

I looked over at him, and felt a wide smile spread across my face. He grinned back and laughed a little. Then I did one of the stupidest, most impulsive things I've ever done. I began to lean into him, not even fully aware of what I was doing. But then I noticed he was doing the exact same thing. I kept moving closer, my eyelids slowly fluttering shut. Our lips were inches away from touching when the sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway and we heard Carly calling "Here comes the snack brigade!"

We pulled apart as fast as possible, and by the time Carly came into the studio, we were sitting on opposite sides of the room, acting purposefully unaware of each others' presence. She tossed me my ham, and handed Freddie his Wahoo Punch. We sat there for a while, talking about ideas for next week's show, and everything seemed to go back to normal. That is, until Freddie looked up, caught my eye, and smiled. I hesitantly returned the smile, and settled back on my beanbag, thinking that maybe eavesdropping isn't such a bad thing after all.

XXXXX

Well there we go! Sorry if the ending sucked – did it?, be honest! – I had to take a Benadryl before going to bed and I'm nearly passed out right now. Stupid sleepy allergy pills. Anyways, hope you guys liked this, and there's definitely more to come! But for now, I bid you a good night, and a pleasant tomorrow. :D lol


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